so what would be wrong with saying what you think?

[phil henshaw]

When I mention things like that growth necessarily means ever more
rapidly increasing complication of our lives,  what DO you think?!?
I'm looking for people who see the truth of that (theorem of complex
systems physics), and that it does not depend on sorting out all the
details.   Do you see it?
 
[it's also theoretically possible that my statement of what seems to be
the most fascinating and relevant problem of our times is incomplete,
and I very openly welcome contributions to how it should be posed]
 

Phil Henshaw                       ????.?? ? `?.????
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
680 Ft. Washington Ave
NY NY 10040                      
tel: [phone]                
e-mail: pfh at synapse9.com          
explorations: www.synapse9.com <http://www.synapse9.com/>    
 
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[Jochen Fromm-3]

> it's also possible that my statement of what
> seems to be the most fascinating and relevant
> problem of our times is incomplete, and I very
> openly welcome contributions to how it should be posed

It seems to be a bit incomplete indeed.
If I understand you right, you want us
to formulate the question which you want to
ask us then ? That's a bit odd, isn't it ?
Why do you think growth is the most
fascinating and relevant problem of our
times ? Here are four reasons why growth
is interesting.

1. What I find interesting about growth is
that it is often associated with shrinkage,
for instance you become a personality
by giving up the freedom to try different
things, by learning more and more about
an increasingly narrow field until you
have become an expert who knows everything
about nothing.

2. Growth is also interesting because it is
of fundamental importance in many complex
adaptive systems and organizations: religious,
political, military and other groups try to do
everything to ensure growth. Growth means more
jobs, more money, more gain. The more agents an
organization has, the more power, influence,
and reputation are available for the leader.
This contant drive for growth causes a lot of
problems, but it is more a fact than a problem.
As Shimon Peres said "If a problem has no
solution, it may not be a problem, but a fact
- not to be solved, but to be coped with over
time."

3. Growth is important to nourish illusions of
the poor to become rich: the classic american
dream resembles the dreams of China and India
today. Most people are poor and have a bad life,
and everybody beliefs he can make it if he only
works hard enough, and this belief is fueled by
constant growth. Yet real success is often an
exception, while most people are exploited badly,
only a few people really make it, often lucky
people who have been at the right place at the
right time with the right idea.

4. Finally growth is interesting because it is
a process related to self-organization and
the increase of complexity, especially if it
is combined with positive feedback (for example
Paul Krugman's model of city formation or
Schelling's segregation model, or the
"preferential attachment" model for complex
scale-free networks).

-J.